Energies, Vol. 12, Pages 4306: Preliminary Study on the Use of Biodiesel Obtained from Waste Vegetable Oils for Blending with Hydrotreated Kerosene Fossil Fuel Using Calcium Oxide (CaO) from Natural Waste Materials as Heterogeneous Catalyst (Energies)

In this experimental work, calcium from natural seafood wastes was used as a heterogeneous catalyst separately or in a blend of “shell mix” for producing biodiesel. Several chemical reaction runs were conducted at varied reaction times ranging from 30 min to 8 h, at 60 °C, with a mass content of 5% (Wcat./Woil) and a methanol/oil molar ratio of 12. After the purification process, the biodiesel with fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) weight content measured was higher than 99%, which indicated that it was a pure biodiesel. This work also showed that the inorganic solid waste shell mixture used as the heterogeneous catalyst can be reused three times and the reused mixture still resulted in a FAME content higher than 99%. After 40 different transesterification reactions were performed using liquid (waste cooking oils) and solid (calcium seafood shells) wastes for producing biodiesel, under the specific conditions stated above, we found a successful, innovative, and promising way to produce biodiesel. In addition, blends prepared with jet fuel A1 and biodiesel were recorded with no invalid results after certain tests, at 25 °C. In this case, except for the 10% blend, the added biodiesel had no significant effect on the viscosity (fluidity) of the biojet fuel.